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Growth spurt?

Hi! My daughter will be 15 weeks Friday and has recently become a little difficult! She's feeding much more frequently and is getting maybe 8-10 hours of sleep in 24. We've got a bedtime routine and all that jazz, and up until this past Sunday, she's been sleeping great; she was only waking for one feeding during the night and 2-3 naps during the day. Now she's up every 1.5-2 hours to nurse and is wanting to nurse every 1.5-2 hours during the day (we were getting close to 3.5-4 hours before this). The reason I ask is I'm pretty sure she had a growth spurt recently and I'm not sure if babies normally have two between 3 & 4 months.
She is teething, but it's doesn't seem to be a real problem yet, and she started rolling from her back to her side Sunday as well. I'd read both of those can affect sleep, but I haven't seen anything about them affecting nursing. I'd also read that around 4 mos, babies stop sleeping because they become more aware of their surroundings and she does like to lay in her crib talking to the animal decals on her wall (which would be adorable if I weren't slowly but surely losing my mind due to sleep deprivation).
I'm just hoping its a growth spurt so it will end soon! I don't know if I can go through another 2-3 weeks of this while she relearned her bedtime routine!!!

Re: Growth spurt?

Welcome to the forum!

I have an aunt who has 6 children. She says "the only thing that is constant about babies is that they change all the time." Seriously, just when you think that you have a great routine and you're on top of this whole mommy thing- that's when your kid will change everything!

A lot of people talk about something called "the 4 month fussies" or the "4 month sleep regression". The fact that there are widely understood terms for this points to how normal it is. No-one really knows why babies in this age range suddenly become so wakeful- is it that they're teething? Rolling? Hungry? Lonely? Is there some fundamental neurodevelopmental shift that's occurring? And because we can't know why 4 month old babies are suddenly waking so much more, it makes the night-waking harder to solve. Often the best thing you can do is to roll with the punch. Don't try to change the baby, just try to rearrange your life so that caring for her is easier. Nurse her on demand. If she is sleeping by herself, bring her into bed with you so that you can nurse and doze at the same time. If she naps during the day, don't take that as an opportunity to do the dishes or sweep the floor or whatever. Force yourself to lie down and close your eyes.

Just FTR, nursing every 1-2 hours is a lot more normal than nursing every 3.5-4. Most babies require a minimum of 8 feedings per day, and many require significantly more nursing sessions than that. My kids nursed every hour or two during the day until they were into their second year.

Re: Growth spurt?

Hello, I just want to say that my daughter experienced three growth spurts by the time she was 8 weeks old. From what I have read, the growth spurts are at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and then 9 months. If you're baby hasn't gone through this yet, then this is probably baby's first. They can be very overwhelming, especially if you are working, and even if you're not. On average, my daughter's lasted about 5 days. They say that sometimes they last more than a week. I got my husband to help me with a couple of feedings so that I could get some continuous sleep, so if you can, maybe pump once and let someone else feed the baby. But don't do this too many times because remember that your supply will depend on the baby's demand. And, the more stress you experinece, the less your milk comes in. Just hang in there, you can do it.